Joyce Meyer: Move Forward to Possess Your Promised Land

God has a good plan for every one of us, and yet so many people who believe in Christ are unhappy, unfulfilled and frustrated with their lives. Many times, the reason for this is a wrong mindset. The truth is, right thinking can enable you, and wrong thinking can disable you. It’s amazing to realize what you won’t do if you think you can’t do it.

My mom knew my dad was abusing me when I was growing up, but she never did anything about it. Many years later, she told me, “I’m sorry for what I let your dad do to you. I didn’t think I could face the scandal. I didn’t think I could take care of you and your brother.”

Sadly, her wrong thinking caused a lot of damage in our lives. Instead, if she would have decided, I believe I can do this! and taken a step of faith to trust God and get us out of that mess, things could have been much different.

God has done so much in my life and caused things to work out well for me. But it took a lot of time, determination and learning how to fight the good fight of faith to get where I am today (1 Tim. 6:12).

As believers in Christ, we need to understand that we are in a war. Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us that God has provided spiritual armor for us because we have an enemy—Satan—and we have to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (v. 11b, NIV). Verse 12 goes on to say that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” And the battlefield is the mind.

The story of the Israelites in the wilderness is a great example of what I’m talking about. When they were delivered from slavery in Egypt, they had to journey through the wilderness to get to the promised land God had for them. It was “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8b). It was also a land that was occupied by the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—the enemies of Israel.

Deuteronomy 1:2 says this journey should have taken 11 days. But the Israelites wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years before they were ready to go into their promised land.

God had to take them the long, hard way because He knew they weren’t ready to possess the land. They were still too immature to take a stand and believe God when they faced their enemies. So they ended up wandering in the wilderness, murmuring, grumbling and complaining (see Ex. 16-17).

The word “possess” actually means “to dispossess the current occupants.” In other words, the Israelites had to be ready for war in order to take the land God had promised them because their enemies were there. They had to have the right mindsets, trusting what God said and obeying Him no matter what their circumstances looked like, what they felt about it or what they thought.

The same principle is true for us. If we want to experience the promises of God in our lives, we have to be determined to trust Him and believe His Word more than our feelings or the way our circumstances appear to be.

In the Amplified Bible, Colossians 3:2a says to “set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth.” In other words, set your mind and keep it set!

Choose the mindset of faith in God! Have this attitude: “I’m going all the way through the challenges I face to victory. I’m not going to quit. I’m not going to give up! By the grace of God, I’m going to be who He created me to be, do what He wants me to do and have what He wants me to have!”

Spend some time each day in God’s Word, meditating on the truth about who He is, how much He loves you and what He created you to be and do in this life. As you do, you’ll find that your faith and confidence in God’s faithfulness are growing stronger, and you’ll be able to move forward to possess your promised land in Christ! {eoa}

Joyce Meyer is a New York Times‘ bestselling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries Inc. She has written more than 100 books, including Battlefield of the Mind. She hosts the Enjoying Everyday Life radio and TV programs. For more information, visit joycemeyer.org.

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